Meet the Author

The FermentedlyChallenged blog has been retired since the end of October 2016. It has been a great 9 year run. Thanks to all the readers and brewery staff for all your support in the past. I'm living in the Denver metro area and working in the Cable TV industry now. Cheers and enjoy beer responsibly. Follow along on social media - @ChipperDave on Twitter and on Facebook.

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Record high temperatures in March and April bring out the need for a more summer-like beer and Breckenridge Brewery of Denver Colorado has a good candidate for a day like this - an unfiltered wheat ale that has agave nectar added. This brew has been one of Breck's staple beers for a while now and somehow reviewing this beer had so far eluded me until now. I'm talking about the Breckenridge Agave Wheat.

Agave is considered a natural sweetener that comes from a blue flowery spiny plant commonly found in the southern United States. The interior of the plant stores aguamiel or honey water and is commonly made into a syrup and can be used in many products including beer.

I picked up a solo 12oz bottle of this at my local store from the singles cooler and added it to a custom 6-pack that I put together. I wanted something lower in alcohol and would drink well on a hot Spring day. Breckenridge Agave Wheat weighs in at 4.2% ABV and has a very low IBU rating of 9. It's made with 6 different kinds of light malts and bittered with Cascade and Willamette hops.Appearance: Breckenridge Agave Wheat poured a golden yellow color and when cold was only able to produce a very small white head with a gentle, non-aggressive pour. This may be attributable in part to the type of glass I was using (a unique Offero Omnis glass). Swirling this beer produced a small 1 finger head that added a slippery lacing that quickly glided off the sides of the glass and back into the beer. Being unfiltered, this wheat beer appeared a rather cloudy due to the proteins in the liquid and it was not possible to see through it clearly. The bottle gave a nice loud hiss when the cap was popped and appeared to have a good amount of carbonation. The last half ounce of beer poured out seemed to add a bit of cloudy yeast to the brew.

Aroma: This brew had all the classic aromas of a wheat beer - some clove, banana, and a bit of additional sweetness to the nose due to the agave syrup. I could also pick up some biscuity malts in this brew as well. I could also pick up a bit of citrus in the air from the Cascade hops.

Taste: Served cold, Breck's Agave Wheat had a lot of refreshing wheat flavor. This brew seemed a bit sweeter than most wheat beers I've had, but I was expecting something like that due to the nature of the ingredients. The combination of the aroma and the taste made for a tasty refreshing drink that went down very easily. This beer was no lightweight on flavor as it had an abundance of wheat and malt flavor.

I didn't know what to expect from the Agave and expected it to taste a bit sweeter than it was. I'm actually glad this beer wasn't overly sweet and I believe too much added sweetener could mask the flavors of the grains and yeast. This beer delivered a nice full body and creamy smoothness.

Overall: While some may say this beer doesn't stand out very much, I felt that it's simplicity was what the brewer had intended all along. Sure, it's a very easy drinking wheat beer with a bit extra added. It won't knock your socks off but then again, in the warmer weather who needs socks anyway?! I enjoyed it for what it was, a nice, simple, refreshing wheat beer that goes great by itself on a nice hot day. This beer would also go well any time of year as a light accompaniment to most any light meal. This 12oz sampling disappeared quickly and I wish I would have had a full pint of it.

This beer tasted great both cold and a bit later as it warmed up. The aromas on this beer really came through even more as it got closer to room temperature. Nice beer Breckenridge. I wish I had only tried more of this earlier. I'd recommend this to all fans of wheat beer.

Disclosure: I paid full retail price for this beer as part of a build-your-own 6-pack.

This article came from FermentedlyChallenged.com - a Colorado beer blog.
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